It’s not a secret that Peaks and Trails is one of, if not my favourite race.

It’s not perfect (there could be more toilets on course and there is no traditional medal) but it’s my favourite. The people, the trails, the atmosphere, the community, all of it.

There is no official race photographers on course, the many Marshalls take photos and videos on their phones at the top of every peak and important junction.

The aid stations are stocked with home made goods from quiches to brownies to whisky.

And the course is just chef’s kiss, well except for that gravel road, but you have to get back to town somehow after climbing all four peaks in Dunkeld.

2024 was my third visit to Dunkeld for Peaks and Trails (for more course info, etc check out 2022 and 2023)

In 2022 I ran it as part of a training camp and in 2023 I also ran Mud-Dadjug challenge the day before the race.

This year it was part of a regular training week, no fluff, no taper.

I had two goals, I wanted to climb better and run more on the runnable part on the way back to town.

I also wanted to try out and practice fuelling for my A race in October.

The race starts at 7am and of course despite staying 2 minutes walk from the start were running late and registered at like 6:50am while the briefing was going on.

With the weather forecast to be quite warm, most of the mandatory gear was scrapped and we only had to carry our phones, water, compression bandage and space blanket.

I had a bit more gear in the back just in case, like first aid, toilet kit, buffs and my jacket.

Knowing it was going to be warm, I had packed only a tshirt and no long sleeve running top so I completely freaked out when we got up and the car was covered in ice!

I wipped my mandatory gear thermal top and thermal gloves out of my pack and put them on. I’ve never actually ran in them before (I have actual running gloves and running tops I usually wear) so this was going to be interesting.

We were about half way up the first climb when I had to stop and strip off on the side of a mountain.

My husband had decided he wanted to run with me, like actually with me, for the whole thing as a training run for another race. It was nice to show him the trails and race I love so much but I think he quickly regretted signing up to a race with so much climbing.

I’m not used to running races with other people, I haven’t done it in a really long time and I was never paying attention to times then.

It took quite a bit of patience in the beginning. I almost left him in the portaloo at the 15k ish mark and it’s one thing for me to chat to volunteers at aid stations but it was annoying when he did it!

Usually I’m really self conscious about my pace and historically I haven’t been very good at running with people who are a lot faster than me. I always feel stressed about keeping up and tell them to run ahead.

I didn’t care so much this time. He said he wanted to run at my pace so that’s what I was doing. If I was ahead I obviously made sure he was still there behind me but we generally just shuffled along.

I was focused on my fuelling and running as much as I could. I realized pretty early on in the race that my quads were again doing more of the climbing than they should be (thanks lazy bum cheeks!) so didn’t want to hike unless I had to. My walking pace was just so slow.

I enjoyed the climbs for the most part (no one enjoys Mt Abrupt) but was keen to get some running in.

Well I was, until I actually got to the road that never ends. After a few kilometres of it I was over it and falling into run/walk mode. This was the part that it really helped having someone else there to stop you from giving up. I was lucky to have Erin on this section last year.

It was pretty hot by this point and I had my first fueling mishap. I had packed four sleeves of clif bloks and I only had one left at this point, right on schedule. But I couldn’t stomach the flavour. It was just gross, I’m guessing my aversion was because of the heat so I moved to general supermarket lollies and jelly beans. Better than nothing!

It was around here that Fitz’s quads decide to surrender and it was a struggle to get to the finish line.

But we made it, eventually, and about 8 minutes faster than last year.

We hung around at the finish line for a bit before making the 2 and a half hour drive back home, just in time to see the end of the women’s Olympic Marathon.

The whole point of running long races in the lead up to an A race is to test gear and nutrition and have a decent test of the legs.

Considering the way I am walking a few days removed, I think I shocked the legs a little.

Nutrition wise I was pretty happy.

I had packed clif bloks for my 15 minute alarm as well as theee gels, some lollies and some new Precision blocks to try.

I also had two flasks with tailwind in them (no fluid) and one ready to go at the start.

All up I consumed the three gels, one of the Precision blocks (I gave Fitz the other), 3 and a half sleeves of clif bloks, two scoops of tail wind (I gave Fitz the other one of those too!) and some aid station water melon!

I’m calling it a win even though when you add it up it’s about 305 grams of carbs (not including the lollies and watermelon) which is only like 40 grams per hour! How are these people eating more than 100 grams! I felt like all I was doing was eating.

Body wise, a few days removed, I have some work to do. My quads are shredded, my hip flexors tight and my bum is fresh as a daisy!

8 weeks until Taupo 100k!